NEW: Robinson Pledges To Reject Federal Funds For Public Education

“If I had my way about it, they’d send the check and I’d say, ‘Oh, no, you can have it. I don’t want your money.’”

In a newly uncovered video reported by WRAL, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson expressed his support for rejecting federal funding for North Carolina’s public schools.

At a recent fundraiser, Robinson told a supporter: “If I had my way about it, they’d send the check and I’d say, ‘Oh, no, you can have it. I don’t want your money. Your money comes with too many rotten obligations. We don’t want it.’”

According to WRAL, the federal funding in question, amounting to $1.1 billion this year, supports lower-income students and the schools that serve them, students with special needs, career and technical education, and substance abuse and mental health care. WRAL notes that when they asked Robinson’s campaign “where they would find the money to cover those expenses,” Robinson’s campaign did not answer the question.

This isn’t the first time Robinson has pledged to defund public schools. Previously, he has called to “slash” the education budget and that “cutting the fat” is “essential” because “it has already been proven that school systems get better results on less money.” If elected Governor, he would continue to support Republicans’ private school voucher scheme that siphons money away from public school students.

“Mark Robinson is the anti-public education candidate for Governor,” said Attorney General and Democratic nominee for Governor Josh Stein. “He has already declared that he would ‘slash’ public education funding in North Carolina, and now he is pledging to forfeit billions of dollars of our own tax money that is used to educate our kids. I’m in this race to defend public schools; my opponent just wants to defund them.”

In a new video obtained by WRAL News, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson says he would reject federal funding for North Carolina schools. Robinson was asked by an attendee what he could do to fight school bureaucracy at the federal level. He said he’d prefer to see the state opt out of federal education funds.

“If I had my way about it,” Robinson responded, “they’d send the check and I’d say, ‘Oh, no, you can have it. I don’t want your money. Your money comes with too many rotten obligations. We don’t want it.’”

Abolishing the federal department of education is an idea being pushed by some conservatives. It’s one of the plans outlined in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump term in the White House.

“They have no business telling a state how to operate the education system, but they do,” Robinson told his supporters. “That’s why we need to cut their money off. That’s why it’s important for us to be fiscally responsible with our education dollars, cut the waste and cut the bureaucracy so that we can do what we need to do without their help.”

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, in the 2023-24 school year, North Carolina received about $1.67 billion dollars in federal support.

$688 million supported lower-income students and the schools that serve them.
$531 went to school nutrition programs.
$380 million served students with special needs.
$43 million supported career and technical education.
$33 million funded other programs, including substance abuse and mental health care.

NCDPI spokeswoman Blair Rhoades told WRAL that the nutrition funding, which comes from the USDA, isn’t necessarily tied to education funding, so the state may be able to keep that and reject the rest. But that would still leave a $1.1 billion hole in the state’s education spending – more than this year’s budget surplus.

WRAL asked the Robinson and Morrow campaigns where they would find the money to cover those expenses. Neither campaign answered our question.